How to outsource software development to Ukraine: A complete guide

The best way to comprehend anything is to ask for advice from someone who has achieved what you just intend to achieve.

The same story with picking a Ukrainian development company.

Many Western companies have difficulty understanding the local market, especially after the full-scale russian aggression began.

Even under the war pressure of 2024, the Ukrainian IT sector generated USD 6.2 billion in exports. For just April 2025, Ukrainian tech companies accounted for USD 569 million in exports.

Is Ukraine’s software outsourcing worth it? There are many points saying yes:

1. Many skillful techies: About 300,000 specialists.

2. Cost-effective services: About 40% cheaper compared to Western markets, with robust quality.

3. Educated workforce: More than 50 universities produce about 30K qualified graduates annually.

4. Cultural compatibility and English proficiency: The country understands what real delivery is, ranks 40th in the English Proficiency Index.

Let’s run through an outsourcing process to Ukraine: how to choose a robust partner, how to hire Ukrainian developers, and how to adopt their best practices.

Ukrainian IT outsourcing in 2025

Ukraine has its advantages, Ukraine has its risks. Yet, the top-tier destination still delivers quality, worthwhile service, and cost savings. Ukrainians are tech-savvy, culturally similar, and strategically flexible.

A resilient talent pool

We can’t call an ongoing, cruel war a challenge. Yet, even during this “challenging time,” software development outsourcing in Ukraine remains strong: 300,000 IT professionals, a wide network of power supplies, and unmatched flexibility due to a stable internet connection (xPON).

Of course, local techies understand the issues and are opening hubs across Europe and LATAM. They are also doing everything they can to get the critical infrastructure establishment status, which allows IT companies to reserve their employees from being mobilized.

Globally recognized and trusted by Deloitte, McDonald’s, and many other US giants

15 Ukrainian companies made it to the IAOP's Global Outsourcing 100 list in 2025. The country is able to deliver high-quality software solutions to clients worldwide: this is especially noticeable in the miltech and defence tech niches.

Cost-effective quality

You can hire Ukrainian developers with a way smaller budget while getting appropriate quality. This cost-effectiveness makes Ukraine a top-of-mind choice for promising and financially savvy businesses.

Time zone alignment

UTC+2 has only a 1-hour gap with European countries and offers a manageable overlap with North American countries. This way, you’ll be able to cooperate with devs in real time and manage the project effectively.

Cultural compatibility and language proficiency

You can find subreddits about Ukrainian devs for the last 5-8 years. Running through them, you’ll notice how users who offshore development to Ukraine admit progress of outsourcing software development companies in Ukraine in business understanding and language proficiency.

Most of them have a strong work ethic and cultural alignment with Western business practices. Currently, Ukraine ranks 40th in the English Proficiency Index, which is significantly higher than India, for example.

Expertise in modern advancements

Ukraine gains ground in advanced tech domains: AI, fintech, blockchain, and IoT. Both as a service provider and as a country of product companies.

Grammarly and Reface have taken AI and machine learning by storm, showcasing Ukraine’s innovative capabilities.

Government support and IP

77% of companies plan to keep working in Ukraine despite the war. Among other reasons, this is due to the Diia.City legal regime and other incentives for the IT industry.

Regarding IP. "Law on Personal Data Protection" currently serves as an alternative for foreign clients. Additionally, IT providers de facto follow GDPR-equivalent standards.

Vendors take on data protection responsibilities: NDAs, information security audits, and data transfer agreements.

Step 1: Clarify what you really need beforehand

Before hiring software developers in Ukraine, understand your current state. The clearer you are about your goals, scope, and expectations, the more productive your partnership will be. Three core questions will help you with this.

Q1: What are you outsourcing?

• A full MVP to launch fast and test the market
• Specific modules or features
• Ongoing maintenance for an existing product

Be precise. Your answers will shape the team and pricing.

Q2: What tech stack do you need?

Depending on the nuances and goals of your product, you may choose between:

• Frontend: React, Angular, Vue
• Backend: Node.js, .NET, Java, Python
• Cloud/DevOps: AWS, Azure, CI/CD pipelines
• Data and AI: Machine learning, NLP, analytics dashboards

Q3: What about a budget?

Try the “3-bucket” framework:

• Core build: Development and QA (~60-70% of spend)
• Product ops: PM, design, BA (~20-25%)
• Contingency: Scope creep, rework (~10-15%)

Pro tip: Add 20% if your internal team lacks a technical lead or product owner; you’ll likely need more vendor-side guidance and planning time.

Set milestones

1. Kick-off and onboarding

2. Discovery and architecture

3. Alpha, Beta, Launch

Collaboration model: Staff augmentation, dedicated team, or full project outsourcing

We’ll cover this in detail below, but start thinking:

• Do you want control or outcomes?
• Do you have internal PMs or not?
• Do you expect to scale the team up/down over time?

Step 2: Match your goals with an outsourcing model

Fixed your goals? Great, it’s time to pick the right collaboration format. The wrong choice will drain your budget or slow your delivery, even with a great team.

Staff augmentation

What it is: 1-5 developers who work as part of your in-house team. You manage them directly.

Best for:

• Enterprises and scale-ups with streamlined internal processes
• Projects with fluctuating capacity needs
• Tight sprints with internal PMs and tech leads

Dedicated team

What it is: A full dedicated dev team (PM, developers, QA, designer, etc.) fully assigned to your product. Managed by you or 50/50 with the provider.

Best for:

• Startups building MVPs or PoCs
• SMEs running ongoing product development
• Companies that need stable, long-term resources

Project-based outsourcing

What it is: You outsource the whole project, starting with specs, through development, and delivering a ready-to-ship product.

Best for:

• Short-term or fixed-scope builds
• Businesses without tech capacity
• One-off pilots or PoCs

Step 3: Spot a top-tier outsourcing company in 2 weeks

Let’s cover finding a vendor for development outsourcing. Ukraine might not look good on paper (due to war and some propagandist battles on X), but it actually delivers. Especially if you are communicating properly. Here’s how.

Where to search (ranked)

• Clutch (4/5): Top pick for verified reviews, portfolios, and B2B service rankings. Focus on vendors with 10+ reviews and case studies in your domain.
• GoodFirms: Decent for broader discovery, but review depth is lighter.
• LinkedIn: Great for stalking company leadership, checking team size, and tracking engagement. Use advanced search filters by location and services.
• Referrals and client engagements: Still unbeatable. One-on-one software development vendor recommendation from a founder or CTO will shortcut weeks of vetting.

Pro tip: Use Clutch to find shortlists, but validate through LinkedIn and ask for a warm intro through mutual contacts.

How to shortlist them

Often, the hourly rate is an insufficient metric because it doesn’t cover all the benefits. Look also at:

• Industry experience: They should have built software solutions in your domain.
• Tech stack alignment: They should specialize in your backend, cloud, or AI toolchain. Check if they are developing something owned (for example, a white label or a full-fledged product) with AI capabilities. This proves they catch up with modern tech stack and are open to experimenting to level up.
• Portfolio relevance: Look for projects with technical and business complexity close to yours.

Check case studies, testimonials, and tech expertise

As we stated before, the selection process is all about communication. Here are some specific questions you can tailor to your future intros:

• What problem did they solve?
• What were the measurable outcomes?
• How fast did they go from onboarding to delivery?

A solid vendor will have 2-3 war stories ready.

Another bunch of questions for tech assessment:

• What’s your experience with [React, Node.js, AWS] in a production environment?
• What architectural decisions did you make on your last high-load project?
• How do you handle scalability and observability in microservices?

Shallow answers = weak partner. Dig deep.

Choose an engagement model

We noticed you liked our questions. Here are some more to understand how flexible your potential partner is:

• Do you offer hybrid engagement, ramping up from a core team to a full squad?
• Can we start with a 4-week trial sprint to assess fit?

Devico offers exactly this, no-pressure onboarding.

Security, privacy, and compliance

Three points you should take into account:

1. GDPR and data transfer policies

2. HIPAA compliance (if you’re in health tech)

3. Source code ownership and IP transfer clauses

A good Ukrainian vendor should have GDPR baked into contracts and NDAs.

Pro tip: do a “reverse RFP”. Instead of sending a traditional one, ask each shortlisted vendor to pitch you with a brief action plan, estimated resourcing, and risk points. This will help you assess not only the technical expertise but also soft skills like proactivity and responsiveness.

Step 4: How to interview and evaluate Ukrainian developers

When choosing a Ukrainian development company, try to fathom out how they think, solve, and collaborate. Weed out the weak and reveal the gold with the following advice.

Go beyond LeetCode

You can run your own tech interviews or ask the vendor to provide code samples or recordings. Two moments:

• Ask about real-world scenarios (API design, data structure tradeoffs, system scaling).
• Use tools like HackerRank, Codility, or internal take-home assignments (max 4 hours).

Red flag: If they can’t explain why they wrote something a certain way, that’s more of a no than a yes.

Test communication the smart way

Give them a vague requirement and watch how they clarify.

Example: “Let’s say we want to build a notification system. How would you approach this?”

Solution: They should ask about users, edge cases, and integration points. That’s what you want.

Ask about the process and tools

• Sprints or Kanban?
• Tracking in Jira, ClickUp, or Trello?
• How often do you do code reviews and retros?

Look for relationship history

Sometimes, direct questions are your weapon:

• How long is your average client engagement?
• Do you have clients who’ve stayed for 2+ years?

You will uncover either their delivery quality and people management, or how they beat around the bush. The former is a clear sign you have found a proper partner; the latter is a red flag.

Best practices to lock in

• Pair programming test: 30-45 minutes of real-time co-coding is more telling than any resume.
• Involve your internal devs: Let them evaluate technical fit and team chemistry.
• Trial sprint: One sprint together is often enough to assess real dynamics. Just negotiate a lower price or, if you are lucky, a free one.

Step 5: Tune your collaboration

Misaligned communication breaks all other efforts. Once you decide to outsource to Ukraine, your first real task is to build those rails that will guide your cooperation.

Pick the communication stack

Slack

• Best for: Agile teams, mid-to-large projects
• Strength: Many features and integrations (including CI/CD pipelines), custom stickers for culture building
• Weakness: You might lose your bearings if not get well-structured

Microsoft Teams

• Best for: Enterprises
• Strength: Deep Microsoft 365 integration
• Weakness: Too complicated for fast-moving startups

Zoom

• Best for: Scheduled team calls, client demos, AI-powered transcription and note taking
• Strength: Stable video quality, good for structured meetings
• Weakness: Inconvenient limits – to satisfy all your needs, you may need a more expensive plan

Pro tip: For hybrid setups, Slack + Zoom works well for most startups and SMBs. Larger enterprises often layer in Teams (as a security measure).

Use a project management tool that matches your complexity

Jira

• Best for: Mid-to-large teams, long-term or multi-squad Agile setups
• Strength: Deep issue tracking, Scrum and Kanban boards, reporting
• Weakness: Admin-heavy

Trello

• Best for: Small projects, short-term builds, marketing/dev hybrids
• Strength: Visual, intuitive
• Weakness: Limited complexity handling

Asana

• Best for: Cross-functional collaboration (dev + non-dev teams)
• Strength: Simple UX, good for OKRs and roadmap visibility
• Weakness: Not technical enough for granular dev work

Framework tip:

<5 people, MVP sprint: Trello

5 to 20 people, stable product roadmap: Asana

10+ devs, evolving backlog: Jira

Define meeting rhythm and reporting structure

This classic structure still makes progress clearer:

• Weekly stand-ups: 15-minute syncs (discussing blockers and progress)
• Bi-weekly sprint reviews: For demoing completed features and getting feedback
• Monthly retros: To identify process gaps and inconsistencies (follow specific retro’s structure)
• Stakeholder check-ins: Monthly or milestone-based reporting to product owners and ExCo

Set relevant KPIs

Avoid vanity metrics. Focus on KPIs that reflect velocity, quality, and delivery health:

• Cycle time (dev start to deploy)
• Deployment frequency
• Bug count post-release
• Feature completion rate per sprint
• Story point throughput

For dedicated teams, it might also be worth tracking team retention and onboarding time for new engineers.

Step 6: Sign only after these legal boxes are checked

Here’s how to legalize outsourcing to Ukraine with contracts that protect your business and streamline the setup.

Elaborate scope, define total price

Note, the approach is scope first, money later. You should define what’s being delivered first:

• Features, user stories, use cases
• Timeline estimates and critical milestones
• SLAs: Response times, defect turnaround, sprint cadence

For fixed-price or project-based work, attach a high-level Statement of Work (SoW) to avoid disputes later.

Choose the pricing model that fits your roadmap

Whether you're working toward a fixed launch date or iterating continuously, the right engagement model should align with your roadmap, risk tolerance, and internal capacity. Different models offer different levels of flexibility, control, and predictability. The key is to match your engagement terms with your product’s maturity, timeline, and evolving priorities.

Fixed price

Fits best short-term projects with stable scope. Helps predict your budget more precisely and not overspend chasing new features. Yet, this model lacks flexibility and potentially reasonable changes.

Time and material

Excellent choice for agile builds and MVPs or if you decided to scale up. Flexible and takes into account beneficial changes. Yet, it requires active management.

Dedicated team

This model perfectly fits enterprise tech teams and companies that have been operating for several years and have a product that requires deep understanding. The model ensures speed and team ownership but means higher upfront investment.

Recommendation: If you’re unsure, start with T&M for a 2-month pilot, then switch to a dedicated model once team fit and rhythm are validated.

Nail down IP rights and confidentiality

• Include IP transfer clauses that confirm all deliverables are yours.
• Ask about code access (repos on your GitHub) and data storage policies (especially for PII).
• Ensure infrastructure (like CI/CD and cloud accounts) is owned or mirrored by your team.

Clarify legal jurisdiction and the resolution process

• Contracts should specify governing law – most US/EU clients choose Delaware, UK, or Dutch law as neutral jurisdictions.
• Define the dispute resolution process (mediation → arbitration → litigation).
• In Ukraine, top vendors already work under these international frameworks, but it’s definitely worth confirming.

Step 7: Lead

Don’t shy away from overseeing the process and leading changes. Of course, it depends on your goal (maybe, you want to hand the development over and free your focus), but everything will work better if you manage the partner team like an extension of your own.

Run structured performance reviews

Framework 1: Old-but-gold OKRs

Define quarterly goals (for example, reduce frontend load time by 30% during the trial).

Key results: Optimize image assets, reduce JS bundle, shift to lazy loading.

Works well for product-driven teams working with a dedicated squad.

Framework 2: 360° Agile health checks

Devs rate sprint clarity, task ownership, velocity, and QA handoffs (let’s say 1-5 scale).

This helps reveal bottlenecks early, especially when you’re scaling a team.

Tip: Share results with the vendor PM and your internal leads. Create a feedback loop, don’t ignore what’s broken.

Make the team feel like part of the mission

Ukrainian developers are used to distributed teams, but culture still matters.

• Invite them to sprint demos and roadmap planning sessions.
• Share customer feedback or wins from the product team.
• Use async townhalls or Loom videos from the CEO/CTO to keep motivation up.
• Recognise the team wins. Call every milestone out publicly on Slack.

Scale smart and early

Your needs change. So should your team. Plan for scale at three levels:

• Level 1 – Capacity: Can you add 2 devs next sprint without a full rebuild?
• Level 2 – Capability: Do you need a DevOps engineer or ML expert mid-project?
• Level 3 – Continuity: Can the vendor swap someone in quickly if a team member exits?

Top-tier vendors like Devico let you predefine a talent bench, people briefed on your project, and ready to step in if needed.

Four outsourcing traps and how to sidestep them

Even well-planned outsourcing initiatives can stumble if a few key risks are overlooked. From misaligned expectations to hidden costs and rushed vendor choices, these traps aren’t always obvious until it’s too late. The good news? They’re avoidable.

1. Poor scope definition = delayed delivery

• Problem: Vague specs lead to confusion and missed timelines.
• Solution: Always start with a clear SoW or do a two-week discovery sprint to define the architecture, tech stack, and key deliverables.

SMEs tip: If you don’t have an internal PM, ask your vendor for a shared discovery lead or business analyst to help refine the scope.

2. Overcommunication ≠ effective communication

• Problem: Daily calls, excessive threads, unclear task ownership.
• Solution: Comms tools are great, but insufficient. You need dedicated rules. They might be in the form of policies, decks, or as videos. But they should be documented for new team members.

SMEs tip: Assign one internal tech liaison to sync with the vendor PM and maintain focus.

3. No real-time visibility ~ late surprises

• Problem: You encountered skipped add-ons to the existing feature... two weeks later.
• Solution: Use shared dashboards in Jira/Asana. Include burn-down charts, bug counts, and sprint velocity. Track the updates.

SMEs tip: Implement mid-sprint reviews (15-20 minutes are enough) to course-correct fast.

4. Different understanding of quality = ineffective partnership

• Problem: The vendor says “done,” but QA fails on your side.
• Solution: Set a Definition of Done from the very beginning. When the code is complete, unit-tested, peer-reviewed, and deployed to staging.

SMEs tip: Ask for QA reports every sprint (test coverage, regression logs, blocked scenarios).

Conclusion

Choose a Ukrainian development company and the setup process seems not that complicated.

True… if you are developing a small add-on to the final product. Yet, with PoCs, MVPs, or for the ongoing maintenance, you need vetted people.

Test to hire developers in Ukraine. Devico helps as an independent consultant and as a dedicated, trustworthy software development and staff augmentation services partner for SMEs and enterprises.

Expect no guesswork, nor overhead. Book a free call and let’s find out what objective we can help you achieve.